@ScottCatehttps://scottcate.com
Technology, Travel, VS Tricks & FamilyMon, 24 Oct 2016 08:20:52 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1https://scottcate.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/cropped-c8-32x32.png@ScottCatehttps://scottcate.com
3232Why You Should Fly Southwest Airlineshttps://scottcate.com/travel/why-you-should-fly-and-buy-southwest-airlines/
Sun, 03 Jul 2016 23:42:58 +0000https://scottcate.com/?p=2321As most of my friends know, i’m a Southwest Airlines fan boy. I love the airline. I just do. They have employees that actually care about their passengers and have great, easy to follow, very business friendly rules.

Now … some of you will complain about no first class. OK, you got me on this one. If you fly so much, that you get Platinum on United or Delta or __(any airline)__ then you win. Short of that if you’re just flying once in a while, business or personal, you’re flying coach anyway.

Here is why you should fly Southwest if they have the route you’re on. Only one reason.

NO TICKET CHANGE FEES.

Other airlines will charge you $150 – $250 in just a transaction fee to change your ticket. This is not including the price difference between your old ticket and new ticket. That is always going to be an upgrade charge. In fact, this is an important note. Let’s talk for a minute about airfares. While I don’t pretend to fully know the fares and how they are calculated, I do understand basic supply and demand and all airlines follow this to a certain degree. And of course there are exceptions but, in general, the more notice you have (14 days, 21 days, 30 days), the better your ticket price will be. As you get closer and closer to departure date the rate may dramatically increase. This might depend on how many seats on the plane have actually sold. Like anything, the last 5% or 10% is more valuable and will have higher rates. If you don’t buy that seat, someone else will. So a seat on the same flight 30 days out might be $120.00 while day of departure might be $520.00. Make sense?

To better understand this, let’s add some terminology.

REFUNDABLE: When a ticket fare is refundable, it means that you can cancel at any time and have the original funds used to purchase that ticket credited back to your credit card. Very few tickets qualify for this. Usually it’s the most expensive full-fare tickets that are actually refundable.

NON-REFUNDABLE: As you might imagine, this means you can never get the actual money returned. Once you buy a ticket the funds to the airline will never come back to you. This is fine because, after all, you’re planning on the trip when you buy it.

But here is the catch between Southwest and other airlines. Non-refundable remains usable 100% of the time with Southwest, while it’s sacrificed 100% of the time with other airlines.

Let’s run through a scenario. You live in Arizona, and need to get to New York. Let’s say you have a month notice so you’re booking this for Monday the 15th, coming home Thursday the 18th. You buy your ticket for $350.00 and you’re happy. #Celebrate

Remember you’re a month out, but you bought your ticket. You’re locked in. Let’s run a few real world scenarios and see how they play out.

SCENERIO 1.
A few days go by and something changes. You have to be in NYC Monday morning, not Tuesday.

On Southwest, since you’re so far in advance, this is probably not an issue. You check online and it turns out the Sunday flight is actually $25.00 cheaper. You change your flight, and without any penalty, Southwest will give you a $25.00 credit towards a future flight. It’s not a refund, but it’s a gift certificate good to use within the next 12 months.

On any other airline. You check online, and also, the Sunday flight is cheaper by $25.00. Wow, you happy dance. (Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!) So you call to make the change, and you’re blind sided by a $150.00 ticket change fee. OUCH! so you have to pay the difference. You decide Monday is important enough, and you cough up the $125.00 difference because it’s important that you be there on Monday morning.

WIN: Southwest!

SCENERIO 2.
Two weeks to go. Your friend in NYC calls you and has an extra ticket to an amazing event at the Garden. It’s the show of a lifetime, with great seats, On Thursday Night the 18th. You’re supposed to be flying home that day.

On Southwest. Again you just find any other flight and pay the difference (even maybe using that original $25.00 credit).

On any other airline, you’re in for another $150.00 change fee. The truth is Scenerio 1 and 2 are identical, one is a change on the outbound, one is on the return.

WIN: Southwest!

SCENERIO 3.
It’s the 15th. You’re in NYC. You already changed your ticket twice, and you’re set to fly home on the 19th. You get a call for whatever emergency you want to pretend, and you need to fly to Florida the 18th, instead of back to Arizona. You’re going to miss your concert but family comes first.

On Southwest, this again is the same as Scenario 1 and 2. Only this time, be prepared to pay more for your ticket, because last minute tickets are more expensive. But know that you aren’t out the original $$$ you spent. Whatever you paid for your NYC-PHX flight, will be applied penny for penny for whatever flight you buy.

On any other airline, you’re doubly screwed. Because the $150.00 change fee only applies to the same city pair. This means that you can change earlier or later on the same day, or even a different day. But you can’t change the Origin or Destination cities. Soooooo this means the original funds you paid for NYC-PHX are 100% forfeited. And you’re now left to buy a ticket with no prior credits. Should you need to fly NYC-PHX sometime in the next 12 months, the airline will let you reuse that portion of your ticket, MINUS the $150.00 ticket change fee AGAIN!

WIN: Southwest!

SCENERIO 4.
This time, let’s go back to before you depart. Say it’s the 13th. No concert or anything, you just have the original ticket you purchased. You find out the NYC meetings are cancelled. not moved, just cancelled. There is no need for your to visit NYC.

On Southwest you can or go online and cancel your ticket. You then have $350.00 to spend on any ticket, one way, round trip, or otherwise, within the next 12 months. You are committed to not changing the passenger name so you can only use these funds for the original named passenger.

On any other airline. The same game. You can use this ticket in the future, only between PHX-NYC and you’ll be out the $150.00 change fees.

WIN: Southwest!

I know people that have paid more in change fees, than the original ticket was valued. In fact, you, my dear friend reader, have probably done that.

No change fees will save you hundreds to thousands over the years, tens of thousands if you’re booking travel for a handful of people in your company.

]]>Southwest Isle seat trickhttps://scottcate.com/travel/southwest-isle-seat-trick/
Sun, 03 Jul 2016 19:55:30 +0000https://scottcate.com/?p=2319Ever in the isle on Southwest airline, and need to get out? As a little know trick there is a button under the armrest that will let you lift it.

This is much much easier to then get in and out of your seat! Enjoy!

]]>How my family of four flies for freehttps://scottcate.com/family/fly-for-free-on-southwest-airlines/
Sun, 03 Jul 2016 17:29:15 +0000https://scottcate.com/?p=2313If we are friends, in person or virtual, you know I travel *A LOT*. And if we are FaceBook friends (which means we really do know each other) you know that mostly I fly with my whole family of four. Jamie, Courtney, Cameron, and Myself.

Why do we do it? How do we do it? Well…. The why is simple, we soon will discuss the how. Why? Both Jamie and I love to fly/travel/explore the world! And we are trying to pass this love of travel on to our kids. And it’s working

As a single traveler, your goal is First Class upgrades. This brings a much easier traveling VIP life. With over two million miles flown, I have been able to spend lots of time in the air, reading the fine print, and understanding Airline Mileage programs. I also frequently read Ben’s one Mile at a Time blog. It’s great reading and I can vicariously live through his first class travels in the air and five star hotels around the world.

But that life is no longer for me. Cameron is 10, Courtney is 8, and I would much rather be with Jamie and them than somewhere on the road alone. His is my domestic first class now. I sit in the C seat, while they sit across the isle from me.

My family in Row 9

What about the cost? Here is the best part, and the real reason for this post. Would you believe we all fly free, all year long? What? How is that possible? The answer is Southwest Companion pass. For me, hands down the best frequent flyer program ever. Period. No questions asked. You can read more about it, but the short version is, if you acquire 110,000 point (sometimes called miles) you earn this coveted Companion Pass. Jamie and I both have one, so any ticket we purchase, our companion comes along for free. Well. There is a $5.60/direction 911tax, but aside from that $11.20 round trip. It’s free.

What about mine and Jamie’s ticket price? To qualify, we each needed 110,000 points. So with all those points we each have enough to buy free tickets on points. And Companion pass works for both paid and non-rev (award) tickets. Again the $11.20 fee applies. So it’s $44.80 for all four of us to fly round trip, anywhere southwest flies. As long as we have enough points. With the right search, and advance notice, we can buy tickets to Denver for 2400 points each way. San Diego hovers in the 5000 point range. Texas is around 8000, New York and Florida can be as low as 12,000 but are usually more. So mostly you’ll see us visiting the western US. Boise. Denver. Seattle. San Diego. San Francisco. And once in a while you’ll see is visit New York or Florida, or (like this week) Puerto Rico (which was about 13,000 points each direction).

Another perk of Companion pass is …. You are qualified from the time you earn it, until the end of the next calendar year. So let’s say you earn the award in September 2015. Your companion award is good until December 31, 2017 a full 16 months. If by chance you qualified in January 2015, you would have almost a full two years To (ab)use the award until December 2016.

Lots of people talk online about getting the pass, that once they get it, they are not able to use it as much as they thought they would. I can understand we are in a unique situation where all four of us are almost always available to travel. Unlike a business partner or spouse or someone with an in-office job.

So the next question is ….. Where do those initial 110,000 points come from? With Jamie and I that’s a combined 220,000 miles. How could we possibly get that many miles, that early in the year?

The answer is the Southwest Air Chase Visa, and Southwest Chase Business Visa. Each of these cards usually has a signup award of 20k or 30k points. If you qualify for both of these cards, that adds up to 40k or 60k points. Two or three times a year, the bonus points will rise to 50,000 points per card. That brings us to 100,000 points each. If you’re in the airport, there is almost always a Kiosk offering the 50,000 bonus points special. So THAT’S how we achieved two Companion passes, which essentially let’s us all four fly around the country for (almost) free all year long.

This is how we do it! You can too. Here is a link to apply. In full disclosure of you use these links to apply for the card, I get get 5000 point referral bonus Hey, if you’re applying anyway, might as well use these referral links right? Thank you in advance.

There are many other ways to earn points as well. I often look at Rapid Rewards Shopping for items I’m going to purchase anyway. I bought a suitcase on eBags.com and my laptop at BestBuy.com I was going to buy these anyway, same price, but because I entered the store via the Rewards shopping link, my spending $$ points were multiplied.

In order to get hotel points, you usually need to book directly with the hotel. Instead we use Hotels.com and get 10% cash back, which is much greater than any other loyalty program out there. I should write a post on just booking hotels. We do book cars with Avis, and as a Southwest Partner, that comes with a 500 point bonus as well.

So at the end of the day, we all fly free.

Join us?

Let me know in the comments if this works out for you. It would be great to know others benefited.

]]>LifeHack: Dyson Handheld is a GREAT Mosquito Catcher!https://scottcate.com/family/lifehack-dyson-handheld-is-a-great-mosquito-catcher/
Mon, 16 Feb 2015 04:08:58 +0000https://scottcate.com/?p=2312My children’s bodies don’t react well to mosquito bites Not that anyone does, but where I might get a bite/bump about the size of a pea, they might see a huge bump the size of a 50 cent piece for a number of days. Needless to say, when the children see a mosquito in the house, they go crazy. Whatever you image crazy is, double it.

In my whole life, I have squashed mosquitos, but only after they land. A wall. A mirror. A door. Anywhere, once they land, I’m pretty good at swatting them. But sometimes, it’s a lamp or a Lego set, you can’t just swat it. Then you’re forced to shoe it away to land on something else.

Tonight, quite by accident, I was holding the Dyson Handheld and Cameron yelled for a mosquito. It was midair … I pointed the Dyson towards it like a light saber, turned it on, and from about 3 inches away, the mosquito jumped right in! How great was that?

It didn’t die, I could see it flying around inside, so I took the Dyson outside, opened it and let it go.

I’m sure this is something millions of others had already figured out, but it was new to me, and exciting enough to write a quick post. Try it, you’ll like it, and be surprised at just how easy it is.

]]>Microsoft OneDrive vs. DropBoxhttps://scottcate.com/technology/microsoft-onedrive-vs-dropbox/
Sun, 08 Jun 2014 14:05:21 +0000https://scottcate.com/?p=2309OneDrive from Microsoft wins over Drop Box, just because of it’s “Make Available Online Only” feature. Drop box has this (sort of) with what they call Selective Sync. The problem with Selective Sync is … it’s folder based, and it’s all or nothing. OneDrive let’s you right click any file, and select online only. You can choose to do this by directory as well. Then All child directories and files are marked online only.

So much better than drop box, because the file APPEARS to still be on your machine. Even images, have their tiny thumbnails. if anything needs that file, it’s downloaded on demand, as if it was there the whole time.

My laptop has a nice little 256GB SSD. and today I rec’d a warning of < 10% available. I had a bunch of Videos, that of course I want to keep, but needed the space. They’ve already been synced to OneDrive, so they are currently on all my machines and phones. Right Click, Online Only, and BOOM the Vid Directory is online only, and I have 35 more GB of available space.

Really nice. Heck for all I know, there is a way to do this with DropBox now, and I just don’t know it. BUT … if they don’t have that … they really need it.

If you’re new to OneDrive, use my referral link and we’ll each get some extra free storage space.